Three men go on trial later on Tuesday in Luxembourg accused of leaking thousands of confidential documents revealing corporate tax deals.

The LuxLeaks scandal cast light on how the small country helped giant companies slash their global tax bills.

Facing trial are two former employees of accounting giant, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), and a journalist.

The government and the companies named say the practices are not illegal.

It was the biggest leak of its kind until the Panama Papers this year showed how the rich and powerful use tax havens to hide their wealth.

Antoine Deltour, a former auditor at PwC, is accused of passing information on clients to French journalist Edouard Perrin, who first broke the story.

Mr Deltour faces charges of theft, revealing business secrets, violation of professional secrets and money laundering.

Raphael Halet, the other former PwC employee, is suspected of a separate leak and faces the same charges. Mr Perrin is accused of being an accomplice.

Public interest

Prosecutors say that together the data was later used by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists in their November 2014 story.

While Luxembourg has laws protecting whistleblowers, they are confined to exposing illegal practices. Civil rights groups have attacked the case.

“Deltour should be protected and commended, not prosecuted. The information he disclosed was in the public interest,” said Cobus de Swardt, the Managing Director of Transparency International.

The scandal put pressure on European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who led Luxembourg when many of the tax breaks were implemented.

He denied wrongdoing and has backed new EU rules to make corporate taxation more transparent.